Learn the Lingo: Beginner’s Twitter Glossary

Now that we’ve talked about Facebook a couple oftimes, let’s dive into Twitter. Even after becoming fully comfortable with Facebook, many people shy away from Twitter simply because it is so different from Facebook. Twitter is a great platform to build brand awareness, reach a larger audience, and drive website traffic with links, especially to blog posts and specials.

Before you start tweeting, take some time to learn the lingo of Twitter.

Hashtags– Hashtags have become popular across most social media networks now, especially Instagram, but Twitter was the original social media platform that used hashtags. Use hashtags to “tag” your post with a trend. People who don’t follow you can find your posts when you use relevant hashtags. For example, #jacksonhole is a popular hashtag among Jackson tweeters.

Favorite (star symbol) – This is very similar to liking a post on Facebook. Favorite a tweet by tapping or clicking the star icon on the tweet.

Handle – Your twitter handle is your username, such as @alltrips.

Mention – A mention is when you are named in another user’s tweet. You can also mention other users. This could be part of a list or a conversation with one other user.

RT or Retweet – A retweet (seen on Twitter as “RT”) is when a tweet is directly copied and retweeted. This can be done through the retweet button on Twitter.

MT or Modified Tweet – Very similar to a retweet, but instead of clicking the retweet button shown above, a modified tweet is copied manually and then modified in some way. This usually means adding a comment to the tweet.

If you are not on Twitter yet and don’t have time, you can still make a page and connect your Facebook page to your Twitter page. This is an easy way to reach both social media networks at once. To get the most out of Twitter, it is ideal to use it separately from Facebook, but we know there isn’t always time for that.

If you are ready to take the plunge, we hope this basic glossary helped. What kind of questions do you have about Twitter? Ask us in the comments below!